One Shots: There’s nothing wrong with being childish

An interesting bit of fallout from last week’s One Shots challenge to submit a picture that captures a “childlike” spirit is that several commenters noticed that there is a fine line between something being innocent and childish and something belonging in a horror movie.

Why not start out with this shot from Zulika Mi-Nam, who brings back Halloween at the tail end of February? “I think everything in Dragon Nest looks childlike, so I found all of it kinda creepy. Just as I had heard though, the combat is 100% awesome — and no child’s play.”

I’ve occasionally heard that Dragon Nest is an underrated title in the same vein. Might have to check it out one of these days.

While the real world may be filled with a lot of mundane sights, one thing that you can usually bank on for MMORPGs is that they pack in the breathtaking vistas around every corner.

Suikoden brings us today the “beautiful Lycandi Foothills in Blade and Soul.” I kind of want to move there now, but my eye size is about 600% too small to meet the requirements of the local population.

A while back, I issued a challenge for action shots, and The Lurker emailed a submission for this category.

“Here is my SWTOR agent being destructive on Makeb,” The Lurker said. “That thing won’t be glowy for much longer! Sometimes it is nice to just let go and smack something down.”

I say that all of the time, but still I get booted from the local pre-teen dodgeball arenas.

“For me, things related to children and childish things in video games often tend to be rather creepy,” Katriana writes. “The nursery in the Estate of Unrest creeps me the heck out any time I go in there for instance. But even it doesn’t have much on The Secret World when it comes to creepy places for kids. From abandoned playgrounds, to derelict amusement parks, they really convey a sense of innocence lost (or destroyed). And of course, what could be a more welcoming sight in front of the local kindergarten than dead bodies draped over the mailboxes and a severed head at the base of one?”

Koshelkin posted several hard-to-pick-just-one shots from a recent expedition in a fantasy MMO: “Finishing my exploration of the titular Black Desert was interesting for sure. Alot of water to be seen but the desert itself doesn’t give much in terms of captivating vistas. Could have taken a few caps of Pila Ku Prison and the Muquinn Outlaw Camp, though.”

So what creeps you out, unnerves you, or otherwise leaves a weird taste in the back of your brain from online RPGs? Face your fears and snap a picture for this week’s screenshot challenge!

Every week, One Shots shines a spotlight on the best community screenshots from your MMO adventures. If you have a great pic to share, email it to justin@massivelyop.com with the subject “One Shots.” Make sure that the picture is over 880px wide and comes with a description or story!

I played a bunch of games this week, and took a bunch of screenshots — and all of them basically turned out too crappy to post. Looked at some of my old screens — couldn’t find anything good on-theme there either that you folks haven’t already seen.

As someone who grew up on the re-reruns of original Trek, I was very impressed with how most of the new TOS-era starships the game devs designed actually look like they could co-exist alongside Kirk’s classic Enterprise in the original show, and not look anachronistic, or otherwise out-of-place.

As a fan, I’ve seem a number of attempts to create authentic-looking retro-Trek starships, and most of them don’t quite work. Some of these, however, are among the best I’ve ever seen.

For the curious, what you’re seeing here is a Tier 6 (endgame) “temporal escort” — its default look resembles an uber-futuristic Christmas ornament, in my opinion — but you can swap in the 23rd-century escort design onto the ship, for that “time-lost” look — which is exactly what I did.

As of right now, I have 3,784 screenshots taken from FFXIV. Having played since open beta, I take an increased total amount of pictures each year. I searched through my 1,744 between now and February of 2016 to find the perfect shot of something that is creepy and, coincidentally, child-like.

For some reason, the Sharlayans thought these were just the thing to guard their abandoned magical stuff. In true Square-Enix boss fashion, this is not even the final form. I spared you from having to look at that because it somehow gets even creepier.

Space is…vast. Incomprehensibly so, really. No game I’ve played can properly represent the magnitude, but Elite Dangerous does the best job or portraying at least a galaxy-size portion. Sometimes in the middle of a long journey, it’s hard not to feel the wonder of it all, especially when a succession of systems have no place to dock, or even habitable planets. It can be unnerving, to be sure. Only the security of finally arriving at a nice large orbital station relieves the tension…sometimes.

I haven’t been playing much else besides For Honor recently. Game’s been a mixed bag, but I love the setting and aesthetic so much and the beautiful high-level gear really keeps me going. I think it has a lot of potential for growth, but that depends heavily on Ubisoft’s willingness to revamp a lot of the core systems… yeah, it’s one of those games.

If nothing else, it really is incredibly gorgeous. I need to sit down and just take screenshots of everything some time.

Ok. So the theme for this week is creepy. Here are a few screenies that have unnerved me… ok, creeped me out. I’m man enough to admit that pixels have shaken me out of my slumber. Some humorous. And others, not so much.

Cap 1: So I’m sitting there in BnS minding my own business waiting on a raid when suddenly this dude zones in on top of me. This is wrong on so many levels, and creepy. Yes, creepy.

Cap 2: The poo stick. Yes, that is what that is. Funny as hell, but a bit unnerving when the quest objective is to smash mobs with stick crowned with pig shit.

Cap 3: And sadly, a bit of a more serious creepy factor. In this scene from the BnS story a child is surrounded by fiends. It may be a bit more scary than creepy, but… yeah, it qualifies.

Cap 4: Let me introduce you to a Grimhorn, a resident in BnS. These little guys live in a wilderness of their own and are supposedly canibals on occasion. Yeah… I can see it. Creepy little dudes size you up right when you enter.

Firstly im a little bit broken today after hearing Bill Paxton has died so theres a pic of Hudson thrown in. Secondly I didnt read the blurb so heres a few of my toon in FFXIV which when im getting to play im really enjoying at the mo.

In the Horde Azshara start zone area (post Vanilla), you get a Goblin mercenary team I believe is all named after those characters in Aliens that you *escort* in a quest line. I think they show up again in the Twilight Highlands in a another quest chain near Grim Batol. o.O

Do all the quest chains in Azshara. It should start at the back entrance to Orgrimma. Halfway through, you’ll get a quest that will send you out to cull a Naga infested beach. The 3rd quest into that is the *escort*.

shane nelson replaced his old house with a bigger house and put it not just right next to mine but also facing mine so he can spy on me from behind his windows. what a creeper!

while testing my stick to make sure the method for getting ti detected was working, i took somze screens of my reliant kore. i might even take her out to see if she’s improved in the new patch, tho she’s missing all of her HUD. LOL

sunsets over bolivia are quite pretty in ghost recon wildlands.

noth got in the trunk of this SUV where he couldn’t even drive. poor guy didn’t even have snacks back there for the ride.

and my GRW beta toon. which i am happy that you can change the eyeglasses and headwear and such in this game unlike most games out there. really adds to the flexibility of choosing what to wear :D

in this case the thing transforms from it’s landing configuration where the wings are sideways into this.

it was a bit hard to fly in 2.5, and the weapon load out was probably worse than a base model aurora (which at least in prior patches was utter shit to the point i was willing to buy guildies the $10 upgrade for auries if they bought the game to make them viable).

since my delta feels meatier while also not allowing the extra guns instead of rocket pods in 2.6, i have some hope the reliant will now be punchier against pirates as well. p[lus with teh combat flight model changes perhaps easier to avoid hitting those pirates with the vertical wings on fly bys when they joust me. lol

As I mentioned the other day I have been spending time on my alts in Lotro.

The Last Homely House is one of those places that no matter how many alts I take through I can’t help but have my breath taken away by the beauty of the place. My Loremaster spent a good amount of time admiring the sights and enjoying the ambience of the place.

Meanwhile my Beorning finds a place to rest her tired feet in Angmar another place that has its own special type of ambience only its not so relaxing.